Letter of the Day: Cashing in on football

December 4, 2012, 4:35PM

12/04/2012

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EDITOR: Is there no respect for tradition or basic geography? Boise State plays football on blue turf and will play in the Big East, with San Diego State. The Big Ten has 14 teams, and the Pac-12 now includes four inland schools. Will rising oceans make it a reality?

The new conference alignments and schedules are determined by TV networks, not tradition or geography, and many games finish late at night. If you're lucky, a game breaks out between the interminable commercial time-outs.

The Holy Grail is to play in a bowl game, but there are so many that teams with .500 records may get to play an extra game before empty stadiums.

Coaches are paid much more than university presidents, and top athletes pick` their schools based on the most impressive training facilities, not academic programs. While a select few make it to the NFL, less than 50 percent of football players earn a degree at many Division I universities.

When a college education is more important than ever, and the costs, along with student debt, are soaring, are these the right priorities?